


Memories

by liberallesbian37



Series: Project Team Beta's 2013 Writing Challenge [38]
Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-06
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-28 15:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/993719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liberallesbian37/pseuds/liberallesbian37
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spencer overhears Toby playing the piano and it causes her to remember key moments in her life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge Number/Title: 38/Piano Man  
> Date Posted: 10/6/13  
> Fandom: Pretty Little Liars  
> Rating: T  
> Genre: Supernatural  
> Content Descriptors: Supernatural occurings.   
> Character Pairing: Spencer/Toby

_I heard him playing the piano as if he was playing my own life with melodies as sweet as memories…_

                Spencer Hastings stood in the kitchen, secretly listening to her husband play the piano. It had been his mother’s piano, one of her few possessions his father had kept after she died. In the twenty years they’d been married, Spencer had never heard him play it. And yet, it felt like something she came home to every day. So real, so right, Spencer wondered if she was dreaming. He hadn’t heard her come in, she realized. If he had, he would have stopped. She listened harder, trying to recognize the song he was playing, but it was useless. If she’d ever heard the song, she didn’t recognize it. It sounded familiar, though. Not the song itself, but the sound. She was transported back to their wedding…

_“Spencer, you look beautiful,” Toby whispered to his twenty-three year old bride. She blushed and kissed him._

_“Do you hear that?” Spencer asked, looking around. The band was on break, but Spencer swore she heard a piano playing. Toby shook his head._

_“I don’t hear anything, Spencer,” he said in a way that made Spencer feel slightly crazy. He must have noticed because he quickly backed up his statement._

_“But you have better hearing than me, so maybe.”_

                Spencer shook her head. She’d almost forgotten that moment, but whatever Toby was playing sounded similar to what she’d heard—or what she’d thought she’d heard. It’d probably been someone’s cell phone ringing, she told herself. It was a song that she didn’t know, but Toby did. She wracked her brain trying to figure out if she’d ever heard it anywhere else.

                _“You’re doing great, Spencer. Just push one more time, okay. One more time. You’re doing great, baby,” Toby encouraged his wife. They were in a tiny delivery in Rosewood’s only hospital. Spencer grunted._

_“Turn that damn music off,” Spencer groaned between pushes._

_“Spence, there’s no music…” Toby said slowly. Spencer glared at him._

_“Now is not the time to mess with me!”_

_“I see the head!” the doctor exclaimed, distracting Toby and Spencer._

                With the arrival of their daughter, neither of them had thought anything of Spencer’s previous complaint about the non-existent music.

                “It’s the same song,” Spencer whispered to herself. She was positive that this was the song she’d heard at both her wedding and the birth of her child. She felt like with this song, she was reliving the two most important memories of her life. She promptly forgot her plan to act like she hadn’t heard Toby playing and barged into the living room. Like she’d expected, he stopped playing immediately.

                “Spencer!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t hear you come in. W-when did you get home?” he stammered.

                “What were you playing?” Spencer asked, ignoring his question. He frowned slightly.

                “I don’t know. When did you get home?” he asked again.

                “A few minutes ago. And what do you mean you don’t know? How can you not know what you were playing?”

                “I don’t know, Spencer. I was just playing. I don’t know what it was.” His eyes flickered down and Spencer knew he was lying.

                “You’re lying,” she accused bluntly.

                “I am not!” Toby protested.

                “Honesty! We agreed to always be honest with each other!” Toby sighed.

                “Fine. It’s just something I remember my mother playing when I was little. Happy?” he snapped.

                _No_ , Spencer thought to herself. She had the good grace to look apologetic.

                “I’m sorry. But what is the song?” she asked.

                “I don’t know what the damn song is, Spencer. Why won’t you drop it?”

                “Because I’ve heard it before and I want to know what it is, okay? You know I don’t like not knowing things,” she offered as explanation.

                “Yeah, I know. But I can promise you that you’ve never heard this song. Can we stop talking about it now?”

                Spencer narrowed her eyes. She hated when people acted like she was obsessing, and he obviously thought she was obsessing.

                “No. Because I have heard this song.”

                “No, you haven’t,” Toby said in a tone most used with five year olds.

                “Yes, I have,” Spencer countered.

                “No, you haven’t, because it’s not a real song. It’s just a progression of notes my mother used to play, all right? So you haven’t heard it because it’s not a song. It’s nothing.”

                Spencer opened, and then closed, her mouth. She knew she should apologize to Toby, but she was too stunned. She’d heard that song before, whether Toby thought so or not. She knew she had. She’d heard it at her wedding and the delivery room. And Toby hadn’t.

                Suddenly, it felt like the room was spinning and there wasn’t enough air. Spencer reached out for the wall, needing it to hold herself up.

                “Spencer?” Toby asked, reaching for her. She pulled away.

                “I need a minute,” she rasped out. This was impossible. Not possible. No way in the world that it was real. She was going crazy.

                “Spencer, what’s going on?” Toby asked again.

                “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. Toby lifted his hand to her forehead, checking for a fever.

                “You’re not warm, so you don’t have a fever. Are you dizzy? Maybe you should sit down,” he suggested, trying to guide her to the couch. She refused.

                “Toby, you don’t understand. I-I’ve heard that song before.”

                Toby groaned and flopped down on the couch.

                “Spencer! How many times are we going to go over this? You have not heard that song. It. Is. Not. A. Song. Okay? You have not heard it!”

                “Yes I have!” Spencer yelled, tears beginning to trickle out of her eyes. She didn’t understand.

                “It was playing at our wedding. And when Stephanie was born. You said you didn’t hear anything, remember? But I did! I did. I heard a piano and it was that song that you were just playing. Why don’t you believe me?” Spencer knew she sounded crazy, but she didn’t care. Toby gently guided her to the couch and cradled her to him.

                “Okay, Spencer, I believe you. It’s okay, it’s okay,” he whispered softly. Spencer sniffed quietly.

                “No, you don’t. You don’t believe me. You think I’m crazy,” she mumbled against his shirt.

                “No, I don’t. Maybe it was a real song. How do I know? Maybe she was just playing something she didn’t realize she’d heard somewhere else. Okay?”

                Spencer nodded, but didn’t believe him. Somewhere, the ghost of Marion Cavanaugh was out there, haunting what were supposed to be the happiest moments of her life. 


End file.
